Of Missing and Kissing
by hermiones-books
Summary: In which Hermione misses Ron and the librarian gets a little surprise.


Hermione missed Ron.

It had been nearly two months since she had last seen him, and with each passing day she longed to see him more. He had been so busy at his new job at the Auror's office and she had been so busy with her final studies at Hogwarts that the two of them hadn't even exchanged letters in nearly two weeks. She had never been the sentimental type, and had often rolled her eyes when she heard the girls in the common room pining over their boyfriends, whining about how they hadn't seen them in a month. After all, what sort of codependent people could not live without someone for a month? However, now she completely understood what those girls had meant, the ache that came with not seeing someone you loved for a long time. Of course, she knew she could live without seeing Ron for a month or two.

She just didn't want to.

However highly logical she may be, Hermione could admit that being without Ron for the past couple of months had been extremely hard. She had even went as far as checking a book out from the library about long distance relationships. It had been highly unhelpful and as far as Hermione was concerned its remedies were complete hogwash. Why, in one chapter it had suggested sending nude photos to the object of one's affection. While Hermione doubted that Ron would mind that remedy, she certainly wasn't going to send nude photos of herself to Ron. If they got in the wrong hands- especially if those hands happened to belong to Fred Weasley- she would never live it down. She just wished that she could find some easy remedy to her problems, but there didn't seem to be one in sight. So instead, she tried to bury herself in her studies and forget about Ron, a task that was proving harder than she thought it would be.

This was evidenced by the fact that she had been gazing unseeingly at the same page of her book for the past ten minutes and was doodling aimlessly on her parchment. Hermione let out of a soft sigh, turning back to her book and rereading the same sentence she had read four times already. She jotted down a few extra notes on her parchment, trying to stay focused and not think about Ron. Ron with his long, awkward limbs and the way they took up most of the bed. Ron with his long orange eyelashes and the way they batted against his cheeks when he looked down at her. Ron with his easy smile and the way he grinned at her impishly whenever she tried to explain something complicated to him. Ron and the way he teased her at these times, muttering, "Hermione, I'm just not as smart as you. I know you think this is simple, but not everyone has your brains." Ron with his soft, gentle lips and the way he kissed her, sometimes as gently as though she were a breakable thing, sometimes with an intensity that said quite the opposite, assured her of how strong he thought her. Ron.

Hermione let out another, slightly louder, disgruntled sigh. This was not working. She could not get Ron out of her mind, and her notes were repetitive, considering they all derived from the same page. She didn't even understand the subject matter because all she could think about was Ron. Annoyed and tired, she shut her book a bit louder than she meant to, causing Madame Pince to shoot her a look before she went down the next isle to stack books. Hermione gave her an apologetic look before crumpling up her indecipherable notes into a tiny ball.

Suddenly, soft, deep voice said, "Why, Hermione Granger, I'm ashamed of you. Being loud in the library, not studying, crumpling up papers. I think that Weasley boy has had a terrible effect on you." A pair of large hands covered her eyes and the voice whispered, "Speaking of him, guess who?"

Hermione thought she was going insane. Surely Ron was not in the Hogwarts library. She must miss him so much that she was hallucinating. She must be sleep deprived from all of the late nights she had spent studying the past few weeks. She had read that when one got little sleep they did begin to hallucinate. Maybe that was what was happening. "Ron?" She asked disbelievingly, after a few long moments of silence in which she assured herself that there were indeed hands covering her eyes and reminded herself that only a complete and total lack of sleep would cause such visions to occur.

A soft chuckle- the same laugh she adored so much- resounded in her ears and the hands uncovered her eyes. "Hermione's brilliant powers of deduction strike again," He teased.

She turned around and looked up at Ron. There he was, her Ron. Smiling mischievously down at her, blue eyes sparkling. "Ron!" She repeated happily, not even trying to keep her voice at a whisper. Hardly anyone was in the library at this time of night anyway. "What are you doing at Hogwarts?"

Ron grinned, his old, boyish grin that she had missed so much. He shrugged sheepishly. "I just needed to see you." He murmured.

It was then that Hermione did everything out of her nature and broke all library etiquette by jumping at Ron, pulling him into a deep kiss. He caught her skillfully, pressing her gently against a nearby shelf and kissing her back deeply. They took none of their usual time to build things up from gentle into more passionate kisses. Instead, Ron's fingers ran gently along her thigh, pushing her skirt up a bit to graze her knickers before his hand moved up and pressed against her hip. He seemed to be everywhere at once and Hermione didn't mind his forwardness a bit. In fact, after two months she gladly welcomed it.

Ron pulled away momentarily to murmur, "You have no idea how much I missed you, Hermione."

She grinned playfully, replying, "Oh, I think I can imagine."

Then his lips were back on hers, though not for long as their kiss was broken by Madame Pince's sharp voice saying, "Why, Ms. Granger! Whatever do you think you are doing against that bookshelf? I am ashamed of you." Hermione pulled away from Ron quickly, a bright blush coating her cheeks as a few of her classmates walked by, giggling. The librarian continued, "Honestly, Ms. Granger, I might have expected something like this from Mr. Weasley, but not you. You have always been the best behaved pupil a librarian could ask for. I do think that this Weasley boy is having a remarkably poor effect on your manners."

The scolding so matched what Ron had earlier said that Hermione couldn't help it- she looked up at Ron, who seemed to be holding back laughter, and both immediately burst out laughing. Madame Pince looked aghast. "Why, of all the insolent little…"

She didn't finish, for Hermione caught her breath enough to interrupt, "We'll be going. I'm very sorry for my insolence and am quite embarrassed. Nothing like this will ever happen again." With that, she grabbed her book from the nearby table in one arm, holding Ron's hand in the other and pulling him out of the library.

Once in the hallway, they took one look at each other and burst out laughing again. "Why, you insolent little brat." Hermione teased, slapping Ron's arm.

"You rule-bending rebel," Ron teased back, snaking an arm around her waist and pulling her closer. He kissed her once again, and although his lips were as soft and skillful as ever this time Hermione pulled away of her own accord.

She smiled up at Ron, brushing a hand against his chest. "You know, I think there's an old empty closet at the end of this hallway." She murmured, brown eyes sparkling.

Ron raised his brows, smirking. "Why, Ms. Granger, I'm surprised at you. I guess Madame Pince is right; I certainly have had a remarkably poor effect on your manners." He said in a perfect mock of the librarian's voice.

Hermione rolled her eyes, smirking back mischievously. She leaned up to whisper into his ear, "You certainly have. And you know what? I kind of like it. So let's go be degenerates together." The complete change in character made Ron blush and look more surprised than Hermione had ever seen him. He stood looking down at her like she was a stranger. Hermione decided then that she liked making Ron completely flabbergasted. She would have to do it more often.

With that, Hermione pulled him down the hallway and into the bare, old closet.

Yes, Hermione had certainly missed Ron those past two months. But she planned to make up for lost time for as long as he was visiting her in Hogwarts. And then she would finally become sensible again and study as hard as she could for her upcoming exams.

Assuming that Madame Pince would even allow her back in the library, of course.


End file.
